Welcome Back my Friends to the Show That Never Ends…

I sat down a few nights ago and watched game 6 from beginning to end…for the 24th time. It was the first time I didn’t cry at the end (what a pussy, right?) although my eyes welled up a little when Trevor Lewis scored the empty netter…go figure.

As my hunger for L.A. Kings hockey grows and I am pretty damn ready for the season to start, I read a lot of talk out there and very little action about the CBA. I try to wrap my head around it and find some logic, some reason why the owners’ position is anything other than happy horse shit by a bunch of greedy men who want to make more money they have neither earned nor deserve, all on the players’ backs. I play the role of a PR person in my mind and advocate the owner’s position to the public but I continuously run into the word hypocritical assholes over and over again when I think of my own client…if I was in such a PR position. The owners are Obama and Romney rolled into one (Mitt…your name is Mitt? Only an asshole is named Mitt), both full of shit hypocrites who think everyone is distracted from the core issues that plague us and neither without a clue how to resolve them because they are too busy towing the line while they listen to their advisors who are nothing more than miniature asshole of the bigger idiot…where was I?

Oh yeah…bullshit…

Gary Bettman in 2008:

“One of the reasons we had to go through a difficult period through the work stoppage is because we didn’t have a system that worked and it was affecting our franchises’ health and what the game looked like on the ice, So, by creating a partnership with the players, by having a salary cap, we now have a system that works for everybody — but most importantly for our fans.”

Do the NHL owners (the bigger ones especially) really think everything will be just fine and there will not be backlash from the fans if there is a lockout? Are they really foolish enough to think the players will surrender like they did in 2004, especially when the NHLPA’s position is not only logical but IS the better solution to the revenue sharing issue and the big vs. small market problem? Do they think hockey is invincible and won’t lose fans? Do they not remember what happened during the last lockout and how many years it took to rebuild fan loyalty? Is Gary Bettman, as the advocate of the owners, so obtuse that he hasn’t sat them down and explained this to them?

We die-hards will always be there. We die-hards are not their “profit”. They lose the casual fan, they may lose everything. Look around. The economy isn’t booming. Discretionary spending is becoming far more discretionary. You piss off the lowest common denominator and they take their money elsewhere and you may have more franchises with empty seats and unable to sustain themselves. Is that what the owners want? I have the answer to that question – they have no idea what they want, other than a bigger piece of the pie. How they obtain it is irrelevant to them so long as they get it…or maybe it’s all a bluff and they will cave at the last-minute. I don’t know. I just want L.A. Kings hockey to start on time. Winning a Stanley Cup is like fucking a young Rebecca Romijn for three straight months…no way you can do that and not want it again.

15 replies

If this lockout happens… Congratulations Bettman, you’ve just increased viewership for sports the NHL already has a hard enough time competing with. The NFL, NCAA, MLB (playoffs) and the NBA (wink wink) thank you!!

Hey, the owners need someone to save them (from themselves). What? One hundred million dollar contracts to Parise and Suter? In today’s economy I’m not even sure that you could justify that for Lidstrom and Lemieux in their primes. Gretzky – maybe, cause he was Gretzky.
If Parise manages a thirty five goal season (not a given as he won’t be playing w as much talent in all probability) that’s a load of money to pay for that sort of output seems to me. Now if he ends up being a 46 goal scorer then I might stop for a second and reconsider….. but only for a second.

I’m the man to take over for Bettman. He did a good job of moving the league forward to what it is today and where it stands. IMO, though for the league to take the next step it has to bring in some fresh blood-some new ideas.

The league and the owners continue to preach about growing the sport and reaching new fans. They spout this continually, but are willing to do two things right now that will have the opposite effect they desire.

The last stoppage killed my will to watch the NHL for a good two seasons. That is coming from a die hard that grew up around the game and played year round for decades. I had enough of the bs, so I left and took my wallet. I finally started watching again two years ago and re-opened my wallet. For casual fans this will be even more extreme as they will just leave permanently in most cases. I agree with Bobby that this is where the ‘real’ extra money comes from. I mean I’ve got 4 LA jerseys already, how many more will I buy? 1, maybe 2 in the next few years. A few new casual fans and they sell twice as many jerseys, hats, t-shirts, etc.

Outside of the SC playoffs, the NHL’s participation in the Olympics is the biggest draw for fans. In fact I say that tournament and the amount of people drawn to it make the summer games and the US dream team look like chump change. I absolutely love the Olympic tournament and look forward to it. It gives the NHL and the NHLPA the chance to truly showcase themselves on the world stage.

Bettman and the owners want to stop participation, so Bettman has been saying for years. Possible bargaining move by the league, because the players have stated for years they want to keep competing in it. Personally I think Bettman and the owners fired that salvo (2-years ago iirc) as a pre-emptive strike for the this CBA. They want to keep the players home those 2 weeks and not expose them to possible injury, while not having lost revenue during the break.

Well when you say you want to grow the game, explain how you do that by locking out another season possibly. Leaving a world stage where the best players in the world compete head-to-head? To the owners and their lackey Bettman, growing the game means carving out more profit at home. Make more by continuing to raise prices and lower salaries. Growing the game to them, means growing revenue.

In the end though this is all bs, because in 2-4 years after this CBA is in place the owners will be outspending each other again and driving up costs. They are the ones driving up the salaries at exorbitant rates and killing the cap. It’s not the players fault the owners keep throwing money around.

The league needs new representation at the top. Someone that has an eye out for the league long-term to promote financial security and growth. Someone that has an eye out for the fan, both bat-shit crazy hardcore and the casual bandwagon ‘whats icing’ fan. Someone that won’t cave to the owner’s greed and someone that has the player’s best interest at heart. Someone that will be ‘Switzerland’ and protect all three key components of the game – fans, players and owners. That person is me.

You should be in the negotiations. Check out Paz De La Huerta, winning cup is like fucking her for a minute (for me maybe 21 seconds). Anyway, Mitt is a stupid name, I agree. It’s like “Muffy” (although the muff part is nice) So is Barack! Barack Hussein? What the fuck? They’re both fucking idiots too, which is why we need hockey instead of political bullshit.